VietNamNet Bridge – Six domestic music websites have signed contracts with the Record Industry Association of Vietnam (RIAV) and the MV Corp to collect fees from users who download music from these sites from November 1, 2012.

The chart of the world digital music market.

The five music sites consist of Zing, nhaccuatui, Nhac.vui, Socbay, go.vn and nghenhac. MV Corp is RIAV’s only representative in managing copyright on the Internet and mobile phones. It is estimated to have 150 websites that allow free music downloads in Vietnam and most of them are not permitted to allow users to download music.

Google statistics show that approximately 25 million Vietnamese people, or one fourth of the country’s total population, listen to music via websites based in Vietnam.  

Zing MP3 tops the list of users, accounting for 44 percent, and is followed by Nhaccuatui with 27 percent and Nhac.vui.vn with 20 percent. Nhacso.net, Nghenhac.info, Soha and other websites share the remainder.

MVCorp reported that consumers accessing music on mobile devices now number more than 6 million in Vietnam, and this trend is forecast to continue in the coming years as the 3G network services and multipurpose mobile devices become more widespread.

RIAV and MVCorp own copyright in over 43,000 albums, representing almost half of the total domestic market. The remainder are held by organisations, music composers and singers who have either demanded no fees or signed private contracts with other service providers to maximise their margins.
As of November 1, the fee for downloading a piece of music from the five websites is VND1,000. Users can also pay monthly fees. The fee can be changed. However, listening to music online is still free.

After deducting expenses, websites will receive 45 percent of the fee. The remaining 55 percent will be paid to content providers (singers, musicians, recording firms, etc). The payment will be paid on quarterly basis.

For international music works, a music website said that it was conducting copyright negotiation with Sony Music and Universal to be able to collect download fee for foreign pieces of music and songs from Vietnamese users from November.

“The domestic recording industry has suffered serious losses owing to free downloading of music on the Internet and mobile phones. The association’s output of recording products dropped by more than 80 percent in the last five years. Producers cannot invest in new music project because they are sure to get loss,” said RIAV’s Chair Tran Chien Thang.

Collecting downloading fees is considered a good sign for the recording industry and the development of Vietnam’s music industry.

Vu Manh Chu, head of the Vietnam Copyright Agency, said that websites that do not pay music copyright but still allow users to download music for free will be fined from VND500 million ($25,000) to billion dong.

Websites that load music works without copyright will have to remove these works.

It is expected that by 2014, around 10 percent of users will accept paying fees for download music.

Compile by P. Lan